Replacing a 30+ Year Old Flat Roof Past Its Prime

The ROOF CONDITION

Thirty years is a long run for any flat roof, and this Barrie commercial building had pushed well past that.

The original 4-ply BUR system was installed with fiberglass insulation — a material that was common at the time but offers a fraction of the thermal resistance that modern polyiso provides. Leaks had been forming for years, patch repairs were buying less and less time, and the building’s drains, plumbing vents, and furnace exhaust stacks had all aged alongside the membrane. Every penetration point on the roof was a potential failure. At this stage, fixing one thing meant watching something else go next — the entire system needed to come off.

The REPLACEMENT PROCESS

We stripped the entire old BUR system and fiberglass insulation down to the deck, replaced all roof drains, plumbing vents, and furnace exhaust stacks, then installed 1.5″ polyiso insulation and a new 4-ply built-up roofing system. Perimeter flashings were finished with 2-ply modified bitumen and 26-gauge pre-painted metal cap flashing.

The VIDEL DIFFERENCE

When a roof is 30 years old and leaking from multiple points, replacing just the membrane is a waste of money. Everything connected to that system — insulation, drains, vents, flashings — is the same age and in the same condition.

On this roofing project, every penetration was swapped, insulation was upgraded from fiberglass to polyiso. and the new 4-ply BUR went down on a clean deck with proper perimeter detailing. The building owner now has a roof backed by a 10-year warranty on workmanship, labour, and materials — and a system that should outlast the one it replaced by a wide margin.

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